Grant: Foundation Grant

A series of discoveries spanning the last six years has challenged our view of microglia, the brain's immune cells, showing their essential but previously unexpected contribution to the experience-dependent remodeling of neuronal circuits. In this nascent field of investigation, my research program aims to determine how this newly defined fundamental mechanism could be implicated in the loss of synapses that best correlates with the impairment of learning and memory across chronic stress, depression, schizophrenia, aging, and Alzheimer's disease. This knowledge will contribute to the design of novel therapeutic strategies that specifically target microglia in order to promote stress resilience, healthy aging, and improve the cognitive functions in individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders, environmental conditions such as multiple chemical sensitivity and electromagnetic hypersensitivity, and various neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases.